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Pairing to our
Pairing to our dinner menu. Principles: Protein rarely matters here at Chambar. Fish with white wine and meat with red wine works in restaurants where the saucing and the preparations are more traditional. Here, it’s all about the flare and the thoughtfulness of the entire composition. We’ve been working hard at tasting and evaluating this season’s dishes to come upon our go-to brilliant pairings to work with the following dishes. These are, by no means, the ONLY pairings that are possible. But they are the BEST that we can offer by the glass. Finally, here’s a short jot summary to get into our heads as we are tasting and trialling. Feel free to use this as your metric as well: Lower alcohol rules. Always. Freshness and acidity rules also. '' ''The proper food harmony can unlock an unexpected level of flavour in a wine. '' ''Sweetness balanced by high acidity and low alcohol is the only way to deal with spice and heat. '' ''We are mostly looking for the acidity of the wine to match up with the acidity of the dish. If we can do this, then the pure flavours of the two elements are freer to interact and we can taste deeper into their makeup. This is where the really profound harmonies arrive. AMUSE GUEULES Les Noix and Olives These are more snacky items that belong best with cleansing ale. Any wine that would go alongside would need to be lower in alcohol to avoid clashing with the spice. Furthermore, I’ve never seen a guest request a pairing with either of these items. Sip Muscadet, Gavi, Riesling, Chenin, Fleurie. La Tartine de Lapin Sill searching. Boulettes d’Elan Verus Vineyards '• Riesling • 2012 Ormož, Slovenia ''The meatballs themselves are quite mild and aren’t driven by either spice or acidity. We look elsewhere in the dish to harmonize with wine. The freshness and vibrancy of the jalapeno pistou matches remarkably well to the freshness and quench of the wine. A beautiful, pronounced fruity note is revealed in the wine and the sesame component even adds a length of savour. Extremely recommended. '''Les Escargots Coing de St. Fiacre • Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie (Melon) • 2014 Loire Valley, France Absinthe, basil, and fennel are all bright, green, and cooling flavours. These flavours will always find favour with wines of similar brightness and freshness. Here, the acidity of the sauce lines up perfectly with the crispness of the Muscadet and the saline and briny texture of the escargots is a great vehicle to deliver an intense burst of herbal freshness when the two meet. Calamars Farcis Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium • ‘Graacher Himmelreich’ Riesling Kabinett • 2010 Mosel, Germany This dish is driven by its heat and sweetness. With both of those elements in mind, we need a dish that is as sweet or sweeter than the dish to bring about a favourable harmony. And we need a backbone of acidity to offer some refreshments between bites. Our classic off-dry German Riesling is a natural to harmonize with the chili influence and will even seem to extend the length and the complexity of flavour with in the glaze. You can almost taste the composition of the various spices and toasts. It’s fascinating. This dish is the reason why we must always follow the following principle when it comes to food and wine matching. THE SWEETNESS OF THE WINE MUST BE AT LEAST AS SWEET AS THE DISH. Otherwise, the wine will taste sterner and relatively unpleasant overall. Sardine Meyer Family Vineyards '• Riesling • 2014 Okanagan Valley - Okanagan Falls, BC ''This dish is very interesting. Sardine, being an oily selection of seafood, will have traditionally a more challenging time to harmonize meaningfully with wine. White wines can’t be too sweet or too floral or they risk clashing weirdly with the oiliness. Oaked styles clash poorly with the oiliness. And the tannic nature of of pretty much all red wines will further highlight the oiliness and “fishyness” that we seldom with to taste in a meaningful pairing. Therefore, we desire something fresh with some fruit (not too too much though). Nothing too sweet. And nothing too aromatic. Therefore, the moderate nature of the local Meyer Family Vineyard Riesling has worked out the best for us. It is the perfect amount of sweetness to handle the tomato relish. Riesling loves paprika too. And the mild fruit flavour that remains is a pleasant and refreshing addition to the main protein of the Sardine. '''Fromages Yves Cuilleron • ‘Les Vignes d’à Côté’ Viognier • 2014 Rhône Valley, France Fontanafredda • Gavi di Gavi • 2014 Piedmont, Italy Sea Star Vineyards • ‘Salish Sea’ (Ortega/Sigerrebe) • 2014 Gulf Islands - Pender Island, BC Mixed cheese plates are challenging as you have a number of cheeses of different textures, intensities, saltiness, and profile. Contrary to how most would enjoy cheese plates (...with their reminaing red wine after their main course), the best overall match is going to be in the white or sparkling category as the tannins in red wine will not find favour with every style on the plate. Pretend as though the wine intends to be a fruity, compote-y accompaniment to any cheese and we arrive at aromatic styles of white wine with softer and rounder acidities for the best match to a complete cheese board. Charcuteries Still searching. PETITS PLATS Tartare de Boeuf Fontanafredda • Gavi di Gavi • 2014 Piedmont, Italy Yves Cuilleron • ‘Les Vignes d’à Côté’ Viognier • 2014 Rhône Valley, France This is where the matching starts to get very creative and exciting. This is where we say goodbye to matching the protein and we must explore the entire composition of the dish and its elements. The best wine here is an aromatic white wine with moderate acidity. Why? The overall dish itself is not incredibly intense. The beef itself is fairly neutral. The pickles add a bit of acidity. But the compelling story of this dish is really about how the aromatic turkish flavours of the spiced pastirma and the aiolis are delivered by the aforementioned ingredients. Your number one nuance from the food is the depth of flavour offered by the chilis. These flavours find a gastronomic link to our aromatic varieties of Gavi and Viognier like nothing else on the list. The pairing illuminates the spice palate and intention of the dish and it is extremely exciting. Foie Gras ‘Villa Lorraine’ Chateau Dereszla • ‘5 Puttonyos’ Tokaji Aszú • 2008 Tokaji, Hungary Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium • ‘Graacher Himmelreich’ Riesling Kabinett • 2010 Mosel, Germany Coing de St. Fiacre • Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie (Melon) • 2014 Loire Valley, France Foie gras is the most luxurious item that we serve on the menu. It’s rich, it’s savoury, it’s slightly sweet, and it melts on your tongue in a way that strikes your primal senses. Traditionally, Foie gras is paired with the sweetest and most luxurious wines of France where the flavour of the wine shares some of the savoury nuance and actually blankets the foie gras with a pristine glaze of dried fruit. We can do the very same thing with the most traditional sweet wine of Hungary that we list on our dessert menu. The pairing is off the charts and anyone that has never tried this classic accompaniment of foie gras and sweet wine simply must. If you haven’t understood wine pairing or have never had a very classic, very traditional pairing. Do this. Additionally, the sweetness and freshness of our Germany Riesling can be a milder stand in for the Hungarian Tokaji acting in the very same sweet/savoury/fresh way. And for an unexpected, but delicious pairing. The bone dry Muscadet slices the foie gras with its mouthwatering acidity and invites you to explore the spice mix and the savoury nature of the foie in a new and fascinating way too. MOULES FRITES Mussels Coquotte R. Lopez de Heredia • ‘Viña Gravonia’ Crianza (Viura) • 2005 Rioja, Spain Jean-Claude Boisset • Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits (Chardonnay) • 2012 Burgundy, France Creamy sauces, crisp and savoury bacon, toasted spice nuances, onions...These flavours all call for the richer and textured tones of an oak-inflenced white wine. Creamy Chardonnays have always been the best wine with this dish because their texture and creamier flavours seem to extend and enhance the life and profile of the sauce. Therefore, we put it with something REALLY oaky, like our 4 years in oak white Rioja and we extend that flavour enhancement even further. Please avoid very acid driven wines in the same way that you’d never want to squeeze a lemon into a glass of milk for a good time. Mussels Vin Blanc Coing de St. Fiacre • Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie (Melon) • 2014 Loire Valley, France Verus Vineyards '''• Riesling • 2012 Ormož, Slovenia '''Badenhorst Family Wines • ‘Secateurs’ Chenin Blanc • 2014 Swartland, South Africa Nichol Vineyards • ‘Nate’s Vineyard’ Syrah • 2013 Okanagan Valley - Naramata, BC This is one of the most wine friendly dishes on our entire menu. Very simple and straightforward flavours done to an immensely delicious degree. Here you have white wine, toasted spices, onion, and butter driving the profile. Let’s shoot some zippy, crisp, acid-driven, quenching styles to reveal the flavour nuances of the sauce. Pairing the Muscadet alongside this dish will make you want to punch a wall in delight. The delicate, but acid-driven, flavours of the Muscadet line up PERFECTLY. The same can be said for the Verus Riesling and the Badenhorst Chenin. But the Muscadet is the clear winner for its perfect fit. And hey, if anyone is really insisting on pairing red wine with the white wine mussels (I can’t for the life of me wonder why), then the Nichol ‘Nate’s Vineyard’ Syrah is one of the most unlikely and incredible surprises that we can offer. Bright acid and low alcohol go a long way don’t they? Mussels Congolaise Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium • ‘Graacher Himmelreich’ Riesling Kabinett • 2010 Mosel, Germany Nichol Vineyards • ‘Nate’s Vineyard’ Syrah • 2013 Okanagan Valley - Naramata, BC So rare is a wine that has all the stuffing and everything in the right places to harmonize with our most famous dishes. The reason why it’s so famous is because its a very intense, punch-you-in-the-face kind of flavour. The kind of flavour you crave when you go out for a fine meal. Heat. Spice. Acidity. Intensity. Richness. Our wonderfully reliable Riesling has enough acidity to stand up to the profile, the sweetness can quell the chili to a delicious degree. And Riesling loves getting in there to stand up to flavours bigger than itself. Most of the time it works. Furthermore, Nichol ‘Nate’s Vineyard’ Syrah can work too. Again – bright acid and low alcohol can go a long way. GROSSES PIÉCES Le Risotto Sauvage R. Lopez de Heredia • ‘Viña Gravonia’ Crianza (Viura) • 2005 Rioja, Spain Jean-Claude Boisset • Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits (Chardonnay) • 2012 Burgundy, France In approaching this dish, we take a similar approach as we do with the Coquotte. There is a lot of creaminess here and the overall flavours aren’t as forceful and potent as some of our other dishes. Rather the mushrooms and the leeks hide out in the savoury background of this dish. Therefore, it offers us an interesting challenge. We need something that is rich enough to meet with the overall profile while trying too add a layer of flavour that makes sense to the composition of the dish. Like the creaminess of the Coquotte, we meet the profile with the richness of either the Chardonnay or the White Rioja. While neither of these wines contains any sort of fruity aromatic quality, they deposit their oak influence among the cheesiness and the creaminess of the dish in a way that it adds to the luxury of the bites.'' '' Canard et Gnocchi Domaine de Pallus • ‘Les Pensées de Pallus’ Chinon (Cabernet Franc) • 2012 Loire Valley, France Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium • ‘Graacher Himmelreich’ Riesling Kabinett • 2010 Mosel, Germany Wynns Coonawarra Estate • ‘Black Label’ Cabernet Sauvignon • 2012 Coonawarra, Australia Coing de St. Fiacre • Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie (Melon) • 2014 Loire Valley, France There are 101 flavours on this dish. It is very difficult to know where to start and how to go about this pairing because each bite could potentially deliver you a completely different bite and experience. What we’ve found is that the most impressive and delicious bites come from adding a touch of the very potent and green pea tips to each bite in order to reveal the fruitiness of the Chinon. The Chinon is a structure-driven wine that requires food to shatter its border of acidity and draw out the pure fruit beneath. Furthermore, Chinon (and most Cabernet for that matter) love having green elements in the dishes because it’s built into their very grape DNA to match well with things like mint, anise, fennel, tarragon, peas, green pepper etc. Chinon is the best. Wynns is delicious as well. Riesling loves the sweeter elements of the dish as usual. And Muscadet, toting its beautiful quenching acid, is always a contender. La Piece de Boeuf Domaine de Pallus • ‘Les Pensées de Pallus’ Chinon (Cabernet Franc) • 2012 Loire Valley, France Wynns Coonawarra Estate • ‘Black Label’ Cabernet Sauvignon • 2012 Coonawarra, Australia Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium • ‘Graacher Himmelreich’ Riesling Kabinett • 2010 Mosel, Germany This dish is absolutely founded on the intensity of its chimmichurri and the potency of the horseradish and shallot marmalade. The expression of protein is quite mild in comparison. Like mentioned above with the duck breast, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon tend to enjoy their link with herbaceous and green elements. There is no shortage of that in this dish and the harmony comes alive when enjoyed alongside the wine. Additionally, the acidity and the overall composition of the marmelade and chimmichirri also find great favour with....you guessed it. German Riesling. It also loves this dish. Tajine d’Aziz à l’Agneau Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium • ‘Graacher Himmelreich’ Riesling Kabinett • 2010 Mosel, Germany Domaine de Pallus • ‘Les Pensées de Pallus’ Chinon (Cabernet Franc) • 2012 Loire Valley, France Gymnasium Riesling is far and away the best pairing with this dish. It’s one of the best pairings we can offer on the menu period! It’s just the perfect fit for the intensity of the honey based sauce that there should be nothing else that you would want to drink with it. Other things, like the Chinon, are good. But the Riesling is brilliant. Even try to sell a half glass to your skeptical guests and they will not remain skeptical for much longer.